How to Use Reddit as a Crowdsourcing Platform

Reddit is the world’s largest crowdsourcing platform. Every day, redditors crowdsource ideas on the platform and they do it in a way that is valuable to both themselves and the communities they are engaging. Some of these redditors are actually businesses and they are using Reddit to make real business decisions.

Tim Ferriss Crowdsourcing on Reddit

Tim Ferriss, author of three best-selling books and a top ten business podcast, used Reddit to crowdsource questions for an upcoming podcast guest:

The post generated 48 questions from fans along with up/down voting data that will help Tim determine which questions are most important to his audience.

This campaign worked because Tim made it clear what he wanted and how he would use the contributions. He posted to /r/TimFerriss, a community of his own fans, so they were happy to respond because it gave them a chance to be a part of the podcast that they love.

But I’m Not Popular on Reddit

Even if you are not Tim Ferriss or any of the brands that redditors know and love, you can still crowdsource on Reddit. You just have to do a little strategizing first.

Create a crowdsourcing plan
Write down the problem you are trying to solve, the input you need from the crowd, how you will you use the input, and what success will look like. It is important to get clear on these things now so you can effectively communicate them to the Reddit community.

Find the right Reddit community
You need to find a community that truly cares about what you are doing. For example, if you are a small beer brewer, then you should consider engaging /r/Beer or your local subreddit for a crowdsourcing campaign. If you need help finding a relevant community, read How to Find Subreddits Related to Your Niche.

Give them a reason to contribute
It should be easy for users to provide feedback. Make a simple request that can be responded to in text-format. If you have a simple proposition and a subreddit that cares about what you are doing, that could be enough to generate quality responses.

To incentivize even more responses, you can offer something to the community or to the users that contribute. This could be in the form of Reddit gold, a special discount code, free swag, or whatever else you can offer.

Draft your post and preview it
Reddit does not have a built-in draft or preview feature. That is why we created rDrafts.com, a simple application that allows you to login with your Reddit account and create a draft. When doing something like a crowdsourcing campaign on Reddit, it is important that your post looks professional and drafting it ahead of time helps you do just that. Then when you are ready to post, you can submit your already drafted post through the app.

Post at the right time
The chances of success can be increased by posting to Reddit at the right time. In general, the best time to post is around 9am Eastern Time. You can read more about choosing the best time to post to Reddit here.

Respond to feedback
After you post, check the thread on a regular basis for new comments. This is your opportunity to go deeper with each user and get as much valuable information as possible. It also shows the community that you care about their feedback and that you have dedicated the time to properly engage them.

Share the Results
If you use the feedback from Reddit in anyway to make a decision, go back to the community and tell them the story. It is a great way to close the loop on your campaign and grow your relationship with the community.

Crowdsourcing Possibilities

Reddit is a free resource that not only has crowdsourcing capabilities, it has a built-in audience that you can leverage. If you are able to engage the audience the right way, the crowdsourcing possibilities are endless.

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